For as long as people have camped in the outdoors, we have brought along cameras to record memories, capture scenic landscapes, and document adventures as they unfold. The great explorer of the American West John Wesley Powell started our love affair with outdoor photography when he brought along a camera to record explorations along the Green and Colorado Rivers. Today, it is no longer necessary to lug large boxy cameras with photographic plates, instead ubiquitous camera phones like the iPhone have replaced and improved upon film cameras. While today’s technology is vastly superior the tradition of snapping shots with our cameras to document personal explorations and adventures continues unabated. Here’s a look at a few iPhone photography apps that can help you make the most of your camping and adventure photos.
Chris and I use SmugMug for our photo hosting on Little Travel Notebook. We love their simple, feature filled interface and ability to integrate seamlessly with our website. SmugMug has brought their simple, but functional approach to an iPhone camera and photo syncing app. SmugShot allows you to take pictures from your iPhone and upload them directly into image galleries you set up on your SmugMug website. SmugWallet allows you to sync your photos from your SmugMug website onto your iPhone – not just iPhone images, but all images that you select from your SmugMug galleries. Together these apps are great for taking, uploading, and sharing photos off of your iPhone. SmugShot is integrated with the GPS on the iPhone and will geotag photos taken on your iPhone to be displayed on a map. We especially like the feature that allows you to take photos, but delay the upload until you are on a 3G or wifi network. SmugShot is free, SmugWallet is $2.99, and the SmugMug website requires a paid account which starts at $39.95 per year.
Flickr is the Yahoo’s photo sharing site. For basic and free photo sharing Flickr is one site that lots of folks love. Flickr now has an iPhone app that allows you to take photos and upload them directly into your Flick albums. Like SmugShot, the Flickr app will geotag your photos allowing you to display them on a map. The Flickr iPhone app syncs the images you’ve uploaded into your account over the web so you can share them with friends from your phone. We like the simplicity of Flickr and that you do not need to have a paid account to use the app. Two limitations to be aware of – first, you cannot delay the image upload using the Flickr app, like you can in SmugShot. This means if you are on the Edge network, you will have a long delay while your photo uploads. Second, free accounts on Flickr are limited to 100MB of uploads per month. If you’re a heavy user, be prepared to pay $25 for a Flickr Pro account.
For those who want to capture a panoramic view that goes beyond the field of vision in a single photo, Pano is for you. This iPhone app allows you to combine multiple individual photos into a panoramic photo. Now, using just your iPhone, you can capture the big sky of Montana or any other panoramic view while you’re out camping using Pano. The app is easy to use and the results can be truly stunning. Pano cost $3.99 but is definitely worth the price.
If you are really interested in making the most of the camera in your iPhone, check out iPhonography which features lots of great reviews on other iPhone photography apps.
